Katie Hern serves as Director of the California Acceleration Project and provides coaching to participating English faculty. She has been teaching students to read, write, and think critically for 20 years. An instructor at Chabot College, Hern has been deeply influenced by the Chabot English department’s philosophy of integrating reading and writing and providing developmental students the same kinds of challenging tasks they will see in college-level courses, in an environment of greater scaffolding and support. Her classroom inquiry into the“Academic Sustainability Gap” sheds light on the issues teachers need to address in an accelerated classroom. Hern’s past roles include serving as Co-Director of the California-wide Faculty Inquiry Network and Dean of Academic Affairs at John F. Kennedy University.